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Home / Economy / Oil tumbles below $50 first time in year on Russian Federation output stance

Oil tumbles below $50 first time in year on Russian Federation output stance

Posted on Friday, November 30, 2018 by Mercedes Poole

Oil tumbles below $50 first time in year on Russian Federation output stance

Brent crude futures fell 64 cents on the day to $58.12 a barrel, off an earlier session high of $59.51, while USA crude futures dropped below $50 for the first time in over a year.

November still marks the largest one-month drop for oil since the financial recession ten years ago, having lost about 22 percent so far.

Brent for January settlement, which expires Friday, fell as much as 2.1% to $57.50 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Russian Federation has started to concede that it needs to join a fresh Saudi-led oil production cut, but is still bargaining with its key partner in OPEC over how much, how fast, and for how long it would potentially reduce its oil output, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two industry sources.

Investors are focused on this weekend's G-20 summit in Argentina, where leaders from the U.S., Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia - the world's three biggest oil producers - will gather in a prelude to OPEC's meeting next week in Vienna.

To rein in the glut, ANZ bank said on Friday that OPEC and its main partner Russian Federation were "moving closer to an agreement around further production cuts". Meanwhile, the specter of expanding US crude stockpiles has also been haunting the market. Producers are discussing a supply curb of 1 million to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) and possibly more, OPEC delegates have told Reuters.

After U.S. crude oil fell below $50 for the first time in over a year, the news hit that Russian Federation would consider joining OPEC and other producers to cut output.

USA stockpiles were expected to build again in the latest week, traders said, citing data from energy information service Genscape.

While Putin praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and said Moscow is ready to cooperate further, he said crude around $60 a barrel is "balanced and fair" and well above the level needed to to keep his government's budget in surplus.

USA oil reserves in 2017 exceeded a 47-year-old record when they increased 6.4 billion barrels, or 19.5 percent, to 39.2 billion barrels, the government said.

"We have seen huge increases in supply and the demand picture is in question".

With that in mind, therefore, his meeting with Ibe Kachukwu is a consultation ahead of OPEC's meetings scheduled for November 30th at the G20 in Vienna, and yet another OPEC meeting scheduled for December 6th. -China trade war in focus.

Anticipation of the meeting may also be driving prices higher, said Kilduff of Again Capital, adding that traders are wary of being short ahead of the meeting.

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China aims to persuade the U.S. not to impose the larger tariffs, but Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would back down. The pre-summit activities began on Monday with two-track meetings of finance deputies and the so-called sherpas.Friday, November 30, 2018